diff --git a/lib/services/cover_cache_manager.dart b/lib/services/cover_cache_manager.dart
index 92033e96..81347d11 100644
--- a/lib/services/cover_cache_manager.dart
+++ b/lib/services/cover_cache_manager.dart
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import 'dart:async';
 import 'dart:io';
 import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart';
 import 'package:flutter/painting.dart';
@@ -14,6 +15,11 @@ class CoverCacheManager {
   static const String _cacheKey = 'coverImageCache';
   static const int _maxCacheObjects = 1000;
   static const Duration _maxCacheAge = Duration(days: 365);
+  // flutter_cache_manager only caps object count, not bytes; hi-res covers
+  // run 300KB-1.5MB each, so 1000 objects can mean hundreds of MB on a
+  // storage-starved device. Sweep oldest files past the byte cap on init.
+  static const int _maxCacheBytes = 150 << 20;
+  static const int _sweepTargetBytes = 120 << 20;
 
   static CacheManager? _instance;
   static bool _initialized = false;
@@ -44,11 +50,49 @@ class CoverCacheManager {
 
       _initialized = true;
       debugPrint('CoverCacheManager: Initialized successfully');
+      unawaited(_sweepOverByteCap(_cachePath!));
     } catch (e) {
       debugPrint('CoverCacheManager: Failed to initialize: $e');
     }
   }
 
+  /// Deletes oldest cover files until the cache is back under
+  /// [_sweepTargetBytes]. Stale JSON repo entries self-heal: a missing file
+  /// is a cache miss and gets re-downloaded on demand.
+  static Future<void> _sweepOverByteCap(String cachePath) async {
+    try {
+      final dir = Directory(cachePath);
+      if (!await dir.exists()) return;
+
+      final files = <File>[];
+      var totalSize = 0;
+      await for (final entity in dir.list(recursive: true)) {
+        if (entity is File && !entity.path.endsWith('.json')) {
+          files.add(entity);
+          totalSize += await entity.length();
+        }
+      }
+      if (totalSize <= _maxCacheBytes) return;
+
+      final stats = <File, FileStat>{
+        for (final file in files) file: await file.stat(),
+      };
+      files.sort(
+        (a, b) => stats[a]!.modified.compareTo(stats[b]!.modified),
+      );
+      for (final file in files) {
+        if (totalSize <= _sweepTargetBytes) break;
+        try {
+          totalSize -= stats[file]!.size;
+          await file.delete();
+        } catch (_) {}
+      }
+      debugPrint('CoverCacheManager: Swept cover cache over byte cap');
+    } catch (e) {
+      debugPrint('CoverCacheManager: Byte-cap sweep failed: $e');
+    }
+  }
+
   static Future<void> clearCache() async {
     if (!_initialized || _instance == null || _cachePath == null) {
       await initialize();